


Shamballa

by subcircus



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Highlander: The Raven, Highlander: The Series, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 15:37:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8850529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/subcircus/pseuds/subcircus
Summary: Amanda and Stephen Strange have history; one that is rekindled by a chance encounter one night.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mackiedockie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mackiedockie/gifts).



The last of the Quickening subsided, leaving Amanda alone in the dark of the alley. She allowed herself to slump, exhausted, and she leant on the hilt of her sword for support.

There was a crackling sound behind her and an orange glow reflected in the puddle on the ground at her feet. Presumably the Quickening had started a fire but before she could properly process the thought a voice rang out.

“Immortals, in my city. And you have the audacity to fight only a few blocks from the Sanctum Sanctorum?”

Amanda sighed. She really didn’t need a lecture right now, especially not from one of the Ancient One’s disciples. She slowly turned to face him.

“Trust me, this was not intended…” she began but trailed off in surprise when she saw the figure before her.

He was dressed in blue robes and wore a billowing red cape and yellow gauntlets but it was not his unusual apparel that had astonished Amanda.

“Stephen?!”

“Amanda?”

Last time she had seen Doctor Stephen Strange he was one of the most brilliant neurosurgeons on the planet. And one of the most sceptical men she’d ever met.

“You are possibly the last person I’d ever expect to visit Kamar-Taj,” she said “How? Why?”

Stephen didn’t answer verbally, but he pulled off one of his gloves and raised his hand to show Amanda. She could see a network of scars etched in his skin and she now noticed that his hands were shaking.

“I’m so sorry, Stephen. I think I understand now. You always said being a surgeon was your calling.”

“I have a new calling now,” he replied as he pulled the glove back on. “I must say, you look remarkably healthy for a dead woman.”

“I can explain…” Amanda began but Strange held up a hand to forestall her, though he softened it with a smile.

“We both have stories to tell, but this isn’t the place. Can I presume that someone will take care of that?” he asked, indicating the deceased Immortal on the ground.

Amanda nodded. She didn’t like relying on the Watchers to clean up her messes but she knew that at least one of Joe’s little historians would be lurking in a shadow nearby. They took the secrecy of Immortals seriously and she could be certain that they’d make sure the late Fiona Moncrieff would not be found or traced back to Amanda.

“In that case, I suggest we go back to my place and fill each other in on the last five years. Perhaps over some tea?” he offered. The invitation seemed benign and ordinary, but as Stephen spoke he stepped aside and gestured behind him.

 

Amanda could now see the source of the orange glow she had previously thought was a fire. A circle of sparkling energy spun in mid-air like a Catherine Wheel and through the centre was not the other end of the alley but a well-furnished townhouse.

“A portal to the Sanctum Sanctorum? You said yourself it’s only a few blocks,” she said with a smirk.

“Ladies first,” Stephen invited, taking a small bow and motioning toward the portal.

Amanda wanted nothing more than to go home to a hot tub, but she had to admit that she owed Stephen an explanation and she was intrigued by his change in career. So she sheathed her sword in her coat and stepped through the portal.

*-*

_Eight years ago_

Amanda sipped at her espresso martini, desperately trying to stay awake. She’d accepted the invitation to the annual Stark Industries gala dinner as a room full of people with more money than sense was always an easy target and, if she was really lucky, she’d finally get close to Stark himself. But the head honcho was a no-show, probably off having more fun than this bunch of stuffed shirts, and the seemingly interminable round of speeches was boring Amanda to tears.

Deciding to cut her losses and make a discrete exit, Amanda excused herself to her date and made her way towards the ladies’ bathroom, intending to slip out the nearest exit once she was out of view. Looking back over her shoulder to check her date had returned his focus to the stage, Amanda didn’t notice someone was coming out of the men’s room and crashed straight into him.

“I’m sorry,” she said automatically. She looked up into the most beautiful pair of blue eyes she’d seen in a long time.

“Not at all, the fault is entirely mine. Stephen Strange,” introduced the man.

“Amanda Dupres. You’ve caught me in the act of escaping, but I think I might have just changed my mind,” she replied with a kilowatt smile. Strange returned it in kind.

“Oh, I’d run while you have the chance. I hear the next guy is a real snooze fest,” he said. Just then, the people in the room began to applaud, which quickly died again as the speaker left the stage and was replace by the host.

“Ladies and gentlemen, honoured guests. Our final speaker for tonight is a name that many of you will recognise. Some of you will not, but I can guarantee that after tonight you will not forget it. This brilliant young man has only been in the field of neurosurgery for three years and already his astonishing advances have forever changed how we see the brain. I give you Doctor Stephen Strange!”

Strange gave a shrug and a grin before he started to walk toward the stage, just pausing long enough to whisper in Amanda’s ear,

“I did warn you. Run!”

Amanda found herself actually _giggling_. She watched Strange walk to the stage and, conscious she was still standing outside the bathrooms like an idiot, she grabbed the nearest vacant seat. If he was being honest about his speech, then she was still close enough to the exit to slip away. But, she had a feeling that Stephen Strange was anything but boring.

*-*

“I didn’t really understand half of that speech you gave, but it certainly wasn’t dull,” Amanda said with a smile.

They had returned to the Sanctum Sanctorum, Stephen’s home, and over tea they had told their tales seated on his couch. Stephen’s had been the more interesting story, and the most fanciful, but Amanda knew enough of the Ancient One to know that every word was true.

“You were at the party to steal from us. Somehow that doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Stephen before he took a sip of his tea. “Nothing with you was ever dull.”

The smile slid from Amanda’s face.

“I am sorry. I never meant to hurt you, Stephen.”

“I buried you. I grieved for you. How did that not hurt me? Why didn’t you come back?”

“Would you really have understood? The man that you were then… I did try to tell you, I wanted to tell you. I’ve never told any mortal before,” she answered. Not strictly true, but Nick had been special circumstances.

Stephen looked solemn for a few moments then nodded.

“I can’t say I’m not angry, Amanda, but I can understand. I’m a scientist, I would have believed my eyes. Hell, that’s the only way the Ancient One was able to make me believe in magic. But if you had come back to me, revealed the truth to me, then who knows where my path might have led. I’m content, Amanda. I was destined to be the Sorcerer Supreme and protect this planet from the other realms and all its horrors. So, everything worked out for the best, in the end,” he said.

“No regrets?”

“I’m not sure I can say that. But none about us,” he replied. He placed his teacup on the table beside him and moved closer to Amanda on the couch, looking deeply into her eyes. “Perhaps one regret. I never got the chance to thank you for saving my life.”

She gazed back into those eyes, still astonishing in their intensity, despite everything he’d been through. She leaned closer still and placed a hand upon his thigh. She wetted her lips with her tongue and smiled seductively.

“Well, cookie, we’ll just have to see what we can do to fix that.”

*-*

_One Year Later_

The sun was shining on a crisp, clear, winter’s morning in New York. There’d been a brief flurry of snow the night before and the ground was still dusted as Amanda walked through Central Park. It glittered in the morning sun like diamonds, cliché as that may have been. It was a good day to be alive, and not even the noise of the construction could dampen her mood. The last few repairs from The Incident were almost complete, and then the city would be fully back to normal.

She was meeting Methos for breakfast. An unusual occurrence, but the old man was in town for a few days and had extended her an invitation. He tended to get a little sentimental around this time of year; he had often visited Rebecca to share the solstice with her, and his desire for company had only grown since Alexa’s passing.

Lost in her reverie, Amanda had almost exited the park when she heard a sharp scream ahead of her. Looking up, she was met by a nightmarish vision. A short way along the path in front of her, a creature stood, twenty feet tall, dark, slippery and positively Lovecraftian in its appearance. Many tentacles protruded from its body and in one it grasped a young woman, the source of the earlier scream.

Just at that moment, she felt the approach of another Immortal.

“What in the name of the gods is that?” proclaimed a breathless Methos as he ran up beside her.

“I have absolutely no idea. But I know a man who does,” Amanda replied, reaching in her purse for her cellphone.

“I didn’t know you’re acquainted with Harry Potter,” Methos sniped and Amanda couldn’t help but be impressed that he could still maintain that level of snark in such circumstance. “Or do you have Thor on speed dial?”

“Stephen…. Yes, we’re looking at it right now… think Cthulu’s little brother….No, I am not going to attack it with my sword. You’re the superhero, get your ass here and be heroic!”

With little persuasion, Methos headed with Amanda away from the chaos, to a safe distance where they could watch events unfold. A portal appeared and Stephen stepped out, before he flew into the air and hovered in the eye line of the creature. It let out a deafening roar and lashed out at Strange, who evaded it and began hurling spells.

Enraged, the creature dropped the woman it had been holding and she began to plummet to the ground. Amanda darted forward, but Stephen cast another spell and the woman gently floated the last few feet to safety. Slightly dazed, but otherwise unharmed, the woman first staggered and then ran away from the scene.

Distracted by saving the woman from her fall, Strange didn’t notice as the creature lashed another tentacle in his direction and it connected, sending him down to the ground with a sickening thud. Amanda cried out and, acting on impulse, she drew her sword and ran forward.

“Amanda! What the hell are you doing? Come back you idiot!” she heard Methos call after her, but she wasn’t thinking. All she cared about was the stupid mortal sorcerer that was currently being crushed by a potential demi-god from beyond the stars.

With an uncharacteristic battle-cry, she charged into the fray.

*-*

Stephen took a neat step to the side before he stepped forward and dipped Amanda. Turned out that he was as good a dancer as he was a public speaker. Amanda couldn’t wait to find out what else he was talented at. Especially with those nimble, surgeon’s hands. Perhaps the Stark gala wouldn’t be a complete disaster after all.

They danced for the rest of the night, only breaking for the odd glass of champagne. There was a slightly awkward moment when her original date approached them at the bar, but after one look at the taller, more handsome Dr Strange, Amanda could only assume that he decided that discretion was the better part of valour. He performed a very neat little manoeuvre that made it appear he’d been heading for the men’s room all along and she didn’t see him again for the rest of the night.

They left the gala together and walked a few blocks to a nearby club Amanda knew, where they resumed the dancing and drinking. The gap between their bodies grew smaller and smaller and some of their moves were positively pornographic. Eventually, as dawn was beginning to creep over the skyscrapers of Manhattan, Stephen leaned down to her ear and invited her back to his apartment.

She leaned up and kissed him in answer, pressing her body against his and feeling his growing arousal, before taking him by the hand and leading him from the dancefloor. As they stepped out onto the street, the chill dawn air hit them and Amanda shivered. Stephen did the gentlemanly thing and draped his jacket over her shoulders before stepping to the kerb to hail a cab.

“Amanda!”

She turned, surprised to find Methos walking toward her.

“Adam? What are you doing here?”

“I… I have to tell you…” he stammered and then stopped, seemingly confused. After a brief moment he seemed to gather his thoughts and he grinned. “I came to see if you wanted to join me for breakfast of course!”

“Who’s this, Amanda?” Stephen asked, having finally attracted the attention of a taxi driver.

“This is one of my oldest friends,” she answered. “Adam, this is Stephen. Stephen, this is Adam.”

“Well, any friend of Amanda’s…” Stephen said with a smile and he offered his hand to Methos.

“Absolutely. I was just asking if you’d like to join me for breakfast. I know a wonderful little French place nearby. You’d almost swear you’re in Paris,” he explained.

“We were going to go back to my place,” Stephen said, a little awkward.

“Oh! Well far be it for me to interrupt. Another time,” Methos said with a knowing smile.

Amanda pouted for a moment but then a wonderful idea entered her head. She placed a hand on Strange’s chest and looked up into his eyes with her most enticing ‘come hither’ look. All men’s will crumbled under that look, even Duncan.

“Maybe he doesn’t need to leave? I’m sure that you must have plenty of room in your apartment. A nice, big, king size bed?”

She left the proposition hanging, uncertain if she’d maybe read Strange wrong, but she wasn’t wondering for very long as his smile broadened and he nodded.

“The more the merrier!”

Stephen’s apartment was indeed spacious and he did have a large bed, and silk sheets no less. Amanda had no doubt that he had a large collection of expensive designer suits and watches and that under different circumstance she might be casing the place. As it was, she had more than enough to occupy her thoughts.

As she suspected, Stephen was adept with those fingers, touching her in ways she’d not experienced in a lifetime or more. Methos was always good in the sack, and he didn’t disappoint this time either. As he lay, nestled between them, the ancient Immortal was kissing her arm as he ran his hand dextrously over Stephen’s back and down to cup his ass.  

Suddenly he stopped his ministrations and sat up in the bed.

“There was something… something important.” He let out a growl of frustration and hit the heel of his palm against his forehead.

Amanda sat up and kissed his shoulder to comfort him. She then grew puzzled as she suddenly realised something.

“This isn’t right. This isn’t what happened. You weren’t here that night,” she said.

Methos nodded. Stephen got up from the bed and started pacing the floor.

“You’re right. This isn’t real, it’s a memory and we’re trapped in it, but Adam shouldn’t be here. What are you?” he said, turning to Methos and looming over him. It was surprisingly more threatening than expected, given that he was naked.

“I’m me, I’m just me. I… I came to warn you both… oh gods, the creature in the park! It had you both in its grasp. You both started to glow with an energy that it was consuming. I think you’re dying,” Methos said.

“If you’re here too, then you must be dying as well,” Strange pointed out. Amanda noticed that his physical appearance had changed; a goatee covered his chin and grey had appeared at his temples. “We have to wake up. Now!”

He closed his eyes and made a series of gestures with his hands. An intricate pattern of glowing orange symbols appeared in front of him and coalesced into a mandala-like shape. He made another gesture and the symbols grew brighter before they flared, so bright that Amanda had to close her eyes.

She felt a constricting pressure around her waist and she was aware that her feet were not on the ground. Opening her eyes, she saw she was back in the park and the creature they had been fighting had her firmly in its grasp. Luckily she still had her sword in her grasp and she raised it high before driving the blade deep into the tentacle.

The creature let out a roar and released Amanda. She dropped to the ground, landing awkwardly on her ankle with a loud crunch, but she didn’t care. It would be healed soon enough. She looked up for Methos and Stephen in time to see the older Immortal drive his sword into a tentacle as she had done, and just like her he came crashing to the earth a moment later.

Dr Strange had also somehow managed to free himself from the embrace of the behemoth and was once again battling it with his magic.  He battered it with a barrage of spells until it began to cease its roaring and its thrashing tentacles began to slow and sag. Stephen pulled back from the creature, out of reach of its tentacles and began to move one arm in a circular motion.

Slowly, in the air behind the creature, a portal began to coalesce and grow until it was large enough for the monstrous being. Stephen began again his barrage of spells, this time aiming at the creature’s eyes. The gambit was working, as the creature was clearly dazed and confused and began to slowly move backwards. Picking up her sword, Amanda began to stab at the nearest tentacle to help move it in the right direction.

A few minutes later, the beast passed through the portal, back to its own dimension. Amanda caught a glimpse of a void, dark and seemingly empty, before Stephen closed the portal again.

He floated down to the ground and approached the two Immortals. He grasped Amanda’s arm in a comforting way and looked her up and down, his eye resting briefly on each of her rapidly healing wounds.

“Are you ok?” he asked, somewhat redundantly.

“We’re tougher than we look,” Amanda quipped.

“That wasn’t what I meant. You just survived an encounter with a creature from the Dark Dimension. I’d imagine that’s something even you have never faced before.”

Amanda smiled and placed a hand over the one Stephen had on her arm.

“I’m good, cookie,” she answered and placed a kiss on his cheek.

He looked her in the eyes, she assumed to assess if she was lying, and then nodded.

“Then I need to go. That thing couldn’t have got here alone, someone summoned it. Someone I need to have words with urgently,” he said. She nodded and patted his hand, then he stepped back, opened another portal and was gone.

“Please tell me you’re not thinking of picking things up with him,” Methos said, startling her. She’d almost forgotten he was there for a second.

She shook her head.

“It was fun while it lasted, but it was never to be. Both our lives are complicated enough without having to deal with the other’s messes.”

“Glad to hear it. It’s bad enough that you work for Stark without you dating a damned superhero too,” he said. “Now, I suggest that we make a swift exit before the authorities, or worse an Avenger, shows up.”

“Good idea. How about that breakfast?”

**Author's Note:**

> Shamballa - a kingdom of peace,culture and eternal happiness, sometimes referred to as Shangri-La and generally held to be mythical and unobtainable.
> 
> Also a good wi-fi password.


End file.
